I realized that I've been talking about and thinking about wanting to lose weight for years now...like around 5 or 6 years...and I just wanted to actually do it for real this time! I've lost some weight on and off in the past, but I've always gained at least some of it back. I also wanted to start really doing something about losing weight because I was getting close to my all time highest weight again. The final thing that motivated me was that I'm embarassed to wear short sleeved shirts right now...and pretty soon it will be too warm to be wearing my hoodies and sweaters all the time! That, and my "muffin top" is starting to get a little more noticable.
I'm another one who's just ALWAYS been overweight (never under 200 pounds since about 7th grade ). I've spent so many years blaming my fat for my unhappiness, and I need to let it go in order to find out more about who I really am as a person, not just as a fat person.
My "aha" moments come and go in spurts. I'll be driving to McDonald's one day, and I'll suddenly just think, no, I don't need it! Saying no that one time empowers me to do so multiple times. Then I'll be "good" (eat healthier and/or exercise for a few months, lose about 30 pounds or so) until I lose interest and start eating crap again. Then I'll be on my way to a McDonald's again, and the cycle begins. So long as each tim the cycle begins I haven't gained back all of what I lost, then I am still making (slow) progress
I was divorced last September, and I spent a few months drowning my sorrows in food. I was diagnosed with depression, and put on medication in December, and in January I had to go to the doctor for a check-up, and they weighed me. I was astonished by the number. I committed then to lose the weight and take back the power over myself from any outside source.
I got really tired of being fat also. My weight had stayed around 245 or 250 for years and then in Sept. of last year I quit a long time habit of smoking and gained 30 lbs. When my size 20 jeans were getting way too tight I decided this is it. I have to do something. Obesity runs in both sides of my family, my mother has weighed at one time over 400 lbs and I don't want to end up like that. I gain weight so fast, I don't know how I let myself get this way. It seems to have happened overnight, just 10 years ago I was a happy 150 lbs.
But I really had to do it for myself and I really love to exercise now. To me it's great for stress.
A couple of things pushed me. One was that I couldn't STAND the way I was looking in pictures. I could fool myself well enough looking in the mirror, as I tend to carry my weight "okay" and I don't think I'm so bad looking no matter what my weight. But the photographs don't lie.
Also, one of my best friends asked me to be in her wedding and when I went to try on a dress, it was so HORRIBLE and I would have had to get the largest size they carry (24-even though I was wearing maybe 18/20 at the time) and I looked like a Buick (LOL) in the sample I tried on. I actually had to tell her that I couldn't afford to be in the wedding, which was true-but another big reason was the dress. By the time the wedding came around, I was in a dress of my choosing, with a lesser role in her wedding. But I had also lost about 70 pounds at that point and was SO happy about it. I did recently tell her the truth that one of the reasons I hesitated about being a bridesmaid was how awful I looked in the dress and I'm grateful for that because it woke me up. Funny, I remember going to the bridal store that day, feeling yucky after having eaten a big piece of chocolate cake. What an awful day. But what a revealing day.
I spent the past year worrying about staying sober, and when I finally had that part of my life under (relative) control I still wasn't happy with myself.
I'm still carrying around the weight I gained while I was drinking. I tried a lot of fad diets and stupid ideas, but of course none of them worked. A couple weeks ago. I was looking in the mirror and I realized that to anyone passing me on the street, I am a bigger girl. I don't like that. So now I'm going to change it and maintain it.
I think what made me say "enough" were pictures from this past Christmas & the fact that my brother in law is getting married & I'm in the wedding party. I've been struggling with my weight for about 8 years & I've tried everything. It finally got to the point where I conviced myself that I was suppose to be heavy & just accepted it. Even though this past x-mas I had a lot of fun with my family, I was horrified when I saw video & pics from it. I just couldn't believe that that was me. I look terrible next to my sisters. I was always the one that liked having my pictured taken but since getting heavy, I've stayed away from the camera like it's the plague. My brother in law is getting married next April & I wanna look really good in their pictures. Plus I'm turning 30 this november & I wanna look amazing & healthy. So on 1/30/06 I started Nutrisystem & have started to do Turbo Jam 4-5 times a week. I'm now down 22lbs & I'm almost half way to my goal weight. I can't tell you how amazing I feel. I didn't really think I could do it because I've tried everything & nothing ever worked. I haven't felt this good about myself in a very very long time. When I look in the mirror, it makes me emotional because I have a shape again. My family & hubby have been so supportive & amazing. I'm so thankful to have them in my corner cheering me on.
I've been overweight most of my life. Right now I'm clinically obese! I got married over 3 yrs ago and I've gained about 50 lbs since then. To make matters worse my husband, who used to be extremely fit kind of followed my bad habits and he's put on about 30 lbs too.
I've been on diets on and off, losing & gaining it all back and then some. This time I'm doing it for our health. Like Zelma's post says, I want to be able to spend many, many years with my husband. And have a healthy life style.
This time helps b/c both my husband and I are doing WW together. We support each other and that has been wonderful. I also found this website which is such a great source of inspiration and support. The people here are wonderful.
I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a diet, this is a way of life. If I want permanent results, I need to change my eating habits for good.
If we could bottle and sell that "click" moment, we'd all be rich. I don't know why it happened. I was staying at a friend's house for the weekend celebrating Samhain. I had just stepped out of the shower and saw her scale.
At this point I'd probably been avoiding the scale for at least 2 years. I didn't even own one anymore. I looked and looked at it, and then I just stepped on and looked down. In the back of my mind I'd been estimating my weight at about 215 lbs but when I looked down the scale read 265. I just about fell over I was in so much shock.
It was sort of like I woke up out of a dream. I started paying attention to diet and exercise and never looked back.
I've posted this before, so just copying and pasting:
I'm 36. I dieted - cycles of restriction and binging for 20 years. I started at 130 lbs and ended at 195 lbs. Dieting made me fat. Sure, it was easy for me to lose weight at super reduced calories every day - I could NEVER maintain it. Two things always happened: 1) my body rebelled against the deprivation and I would eat "out of control" as my body desperately cried out for food 2) I would reach my "goal weight" and stop dieting and return to the unhealthy eating habits that made me heavy in the first place. In either case, I would always gain all the lost weight back AND MORE.
At age 35, I weighed nearly 200 lbs. I was tired, lethargic, I used to fall asleep at work nearly every day. I quit looking at myself, quit weighing myself, quit shopping. I wore the same size 18 loose fit Eddie Bauer jeans every day, the same black loafers. I quit doing anything with my hair - just let it air dry frizzy every day. No make up. I constantly dreamed and fantasized about being thin, about losing weight. I thought about losing weight more than people must think of winning the lottery.
I decided to start eating for my health. No more restriction, no more binging, just healthy foods - 6 meals a day, 1600 calories a day. Wide variety of vegetables, fruit, lean protein, low fat dairy, healthy fats, whole grains. I feel really great - not one binge, not one "out of control" moment since July 2004. Not one day sick, either.
I am celebrating my first year of maintenance at my goal weight. For the first time in my life, I have lost weight and have kept it off.
My "turning point" was a combination of 3 things:
1. My mom was really serious about me coming to spend the holidays with her. She is one of those bona fide genetically skinny people and I know she loves me very much, but I don't think she understands how difficult it is for people to manage their weight. I hadn't seen her for 2 years and she hadn't seen me at my highest weight. I didn't want to go visit and have her look at me with love and pity and not talk about my weight for the entire visit.
2. I went to the bathroom at a movie theatre. When I sat down, I cut my outer thigh on a sharp edged metal trash receptacle. My thigh bled and I cried, because I realized that a normal sized person would have fit just fine. I was moving from "big girl" to "fat girl" and all I could envision was a lifetime of being too big for seats and asking for seat belt extenders on planes.
3. I read this book called Super Foods Rx: 14 Foods That Can Save Your Life. All of my grandparents had died relatively young - diabetes, cancer, heart disease, complications of alzheimers. The book was very exciting to me - the idea of using food to prevent serious diseases. I decided that day, holding the book in the aisle of Borders that I was going to change how I ate forever. My old failed diets - the restrictions, the binging, the gaining more weight than when I started, I realized everything I had done wrong and how I could really do it this time.
All it took, to lose weight, to keep it off for a year, was just a little more planning (shopping, lunch packing) and exercise.
I gained all of my weight because of depression. I didn't care about myself or how I looked or anything like that. I went from 170 to 225 in about 9 months. I started seeing a psychiatrist and I got put on anti-depressants. Once I was out of the dark hole that I was in I could see how much damage I was doing to my body... so I decided to try and be healthier.
What did it for me? I was supposed to meet a ton of new people and for a month before i kept saying " i need to lose some weight!" and i never did. Then i met all these people and felt really insecure the whole time. I came home and the next day i started eating better and exercising, and i haven't looked back! It's been over 2 months for me
What made me finally take control and turn my life around was diabetes. My blood sugar was over 350 and my doctor wrote 'obese' on my chart. I hate that word and didn't want to see it there again. With diabetic counsling, I learned to eat healthier and lost weight. I still need to lose 15 to 20 lbs, but my blood sugar is under control.
I went shopping, saw all the pretty clothes- but they were all thin people clothes. I wasen't going to buy shorts and tank tops at the weight I started at XD.
When my size 20 jeans were getting way too tight I decided this is it. I have to do something. Obesity runs in both sides of my family, my mother has weighed at one time over 400 lbs and I don't want to end up like that. I gain weight so fast, I don't know how I let myself get this way. It seems to have happened overnight, just 10 years ago I was a happy 150 lbs. 
To me it's great for stress. 
I got married over 3 yrs ago and I've gained about 50 lbs since then. To make matters worse my husband, who used to be extremely fit kind of followed my bad habits and he's put on about 30 lbs too. 
